Name: Egg Plant
Ingredients: 1 eggplant; Coarse sea salt; Cracker crumbs; 1 egg; Butter for frying

Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Egg Plant

Ingredients

Directions

Slice the eggplant and soak in cold salt water for 1 hour.
Roll the soaked slices in cracker crumbs.
Dip the crumb-coated slices in beaten egg.
Fry in butter until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Eggplant + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together507 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Eggplant + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together515 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).